The present invention relates to a microbicidal filter for treating air and a filtration cartridge comprising such a filter.
A filter for clean rooms and hospitals is known from a reading of the document U.S. Pat. No. B-4,323,374. It is composed, in a preferential configuration, of a HEPA filter conformed in a zigzag, downstream of which a filtration layer is placed, fabricated from polypropylene fibres with an electrostatic property. The upstream HEPA layer retains the particles and microbes with a size of less than 0.3 micrometers. The downstream layer retains a large quantity of particles with a size of less than 0.111 micrometers. Separators are placed between the pleats of a pleated element to separate its walls. The advantages proposed are high efficiency and low fouling.
The living particles trapped by the HEPA filter do however remain living and may contaminate the air, in particular during the filter replacement operation, so that the person carrying out this work is exposed to a health risk. Moreover, separators must be placed in the hollows of the pleats to prevent collapse of the pleated element.